Links, 11.29.10

Thanksgiving has a way of slowing the links down. Maybe everyone is busy digesting their turkey. Or maybe, with all those family gatherings last week, it’s really that everyone is busy digesting genealogy information. Meanwhile:

Collected works: This past week, Dick Eastman kicked off a new feature, “From The In-box,” for his Online Genealogy Newsletter, dealing with the general queries that hit his email box on a regular basis. For instance: What To Do With Collected Data, a topic everyone discusses and agrees needs to be dealt with but then … it isn’t always dealt with. The comments section contains many thoughtful and thought-provoking suggestions.

What Not To Do: Whatever you decide to do with your stuff, Please Don’t Throw It Away, as Aillin from Australian Genealogy Journeys implores us in a saddening and sometimes maddening post about people who toss old photos out of impatience and ignorance.

1905 NY census: This week, Pat Connors of the NY-Irish list shared useful information via FamilySearch.org for searching the New York State 1905 census. First, go to this link and scroll down to the 1905 New York census link. Clicking on it will give you the option to either do a records search on a specific name, or browse all the images. If you do the records search, you might get a specific location for your ancestor in the 1905 census, which will greatly speed your search. I say “might” because in my case, my great-grandfather Joseph Haigney (naturally) was nowhere to be found. But his brother William was — so I still had success with this method. I haven’t given up on Joseph; I just suspect his surname has been creatively spelled in a way I haven’t sussed out yet.